St Lawrence of Google

DOES Larry Page ever get vertigo when contemplating his life and future? After all, Mr Page and Sergey Brin, the co-founders of Google, the world's most popular internet search engine, can legitimately claim to have caused an information and media revolution. At 32, they are already worth far more than $10 billion each and fly around in their own Boeing 767. Bill Gates fears them; others in the industry admire or envy them, and some seem to consider them capable of anything. Expectations are dizzyingly high.

“It's not a good thing to think about,” said Mr Page behind the stage after his keynote address in Las Vegas at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) last week. But if he must ponder his company's achievements and power, he says in his halting, thoughtful voice, it gives him an even greater “sense of responsibility” to make the world a better place. “The reason your question doesn't make sense”, adds Eric Schmidt, the comparative veteran who is Google's chief executive and jointly runs the company with the founders, “is that he's too busy” to have vertigo. Busy, that is, changing the world. Face value | St Lawrence of Google | Economist.com